U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Alt print on Glass?

Re: Alt print on Glass?



Jacek,

Printing on glass is not very difficult but the exact procedure depends on the process.
I have made three-color gums on glass, but gum doesn't stick very well on plain glass, so I first 'frosted' the glass surface with carborundum. Well, actually a valve-polishing compound that has carborundum.

I use carborundum because just 'sanding' the glass is, in my experience, very slow.

On the other hand, gelatin sticks to clean plain glass very well, so any gelatin based process such as carbon works very well without the need of any additional substrate. But the glass has to be VERY clean, and that means at least some ammonia-based detergent. You could also consult instructions for preparing glass for collodion. Glass is notoriously difficult to clean well :-)

For maximum adherence of gelatin you could use some sodium silicate substrate as used for collotype. However, for a quick test a reasonably clean glass will do.

You don't need to brush the gelatin on the glass. Just flow it from a flask, and help to spread it with a finger (or a glass rod). The gelatin will dry to a nice transparent thin coat. Keep the glass warm while spreading, and then cool it on a very level surface.

cheers
Tom Sobota
Madrid, Spain


Jacek Gonsalves wrote:
Hi all,

Has anyone had success on printing on glass? I'm going to try and brush a gelatin coat on and see how that goes. Hopefully the gelatin will stick, though perhaps I need to sand the glass slightly to give it some tooth?
From there I'm going to try a cyanotype print. Should be intresting!
Cheers
Jacek